Guide to Quickly Creating a Bootable USB Drive with Hiren's BootCD

A bootable USB drive, or USB drive for installing Windows, is useful when you forget your Windows password and need to bypass it to log into your computer, reinstall Windows, boot into the system to fix errors, or recover Windows. The USB drive is small and convenient to carry around. If you're a frequent computer user, you should definitely create a bootable USB drive to use whenever needed.

Creating a bootable USB drive isn't too difficult; there are many ways to create them using numerous software programs. However, Hiren's BootCD is a fairly old tool and a favorite among tech enthusiasts. Therefore, TipsMake.com has written a separate guide on how to create a bootable USB drive and a Windows installation USB drive using Hiren's BootCD.

If you want to ghost Windows, please read this guide: How to ghost Windows 7/8, Windows 10 using OneKey Ghost.

How to Download Hiren's BootCD

Hiren's BootCD PE is a set of utilities installed on a bootable USB or DVD that you can use to troubleshoot problems related to your existing Windows operating system installation. Hiren's BootCD PE runs on a version of Windows PE, designed for troubleshooting purposes, but cannot be used as a full installation of the operating system.

Hiren's BootCD PE is an emergency diagnostic boot disk based on Windows 10 PE x64. It provides a set of programs to help resolve most computer and internet problems, including driver errors, unstable internet connections, and many other computer issues. A unique feature of Hiren's BootCD is its ability to automatically install most essential drivers, including the internet driver, so you can get started right away.

Hiren's BootCD actually contains a dozen utilities, including TeamViewer for remote access, Malwarebytes for removing malware and viruses, several disk and system image creation tools, and tools for recovering accidentally deleted files. Some of the standout tools include:

To use Hiren's BootCD PE, you will need to download the ISO file, a disk image that, once burned to a drive, you can use to boot your computer.

After booting from the disk, you can use the built-in utilities to restore the installed operating system or block all recovery possibilities, use it to copy files from a corrupted computer, erase drives, and reinstall Windows.

Hiren's BootCD PE is available for free download, but it's important to note that Hiren no longer maintains this tool. There have been no official updates to the original software since 2012. Hiren's website states: "The Hiren's BootCD PE version is being developed by Hiren's BootCD fans. It includes the best, most up-to-date, free tools for use in Hiren's BootCD. This tool is developed for modern computers."

Where can I download Hiren's BootCD?

You can find Hiren's BootCD PE at the website Hiren's BootCD PE.org.

• Download Hiren's BootCD PE ISO

After downloading the ISO file, you will need to use Windows Disc Image Burner, which is built into all versions of Windows, from Windows 7 onwards, to copy the information from the ISO to a USB drive.

To boot into Hiren's BootCD PE, you'll need to change your boot options. On most PCs, this will be the F11 key at startup, followed by selecting USB boot volume.

How to Create a Bootable USB Drive Using Hiren's BootCD

Step 1: Prepare to Create a Bootable USB Drive or a Ghost USB Drive for Windows

• USB drives with a capacity of 1 GB or more.
• A tool for formatting USB drives. USBFormat is recommended; download it here!
• Tool to make a USB drive bootable: grub4dos.zip
• A toolkit for booting and modifying computers: Hiren's BootCD 15.2

Step 2: Format the USB Drive to FAT32

To ensure your USB drive works and boots normally, you need to convert the format of your USB drive to FAT32. Run the USBFormat tool downloaded above, extract it, and run the usb_format.exe file.

Here, select the options as shown in the image to format the USB drive to FAT32 instead of NTFS:

• Select the correct USB device in the Device section.
• Select FAT32 in the File system section.
• Press Start to begin formatting. The process will take longer or longer depending on the read/write speed and capacity of the USB drive (in my test, formatting an 8GB USB drive took about 15 minutes).

Once the USB drive is formatted, you will see a notification image like this.

Step 3: Run Grub4Dos Installer to Make the USB Drive Bootable

Extract "grub4dos.zip" > run "grubinst_gui.exe" to make the USB bootable by following the steps shown in the image below.

Steps to create a Windows Ghost USB

Specifically, to run the Grub4Dos Installer, follow these steps:

• Press Refresh (1) in the Disk section to select the correct USB (2).
• Press Refresh (3) in Part List to select Whole disk (MBR) (4).
• After making sure you have selected the above items correctly, press the Install button (5).

Follow the instructions in the image to create a Hiren Bootable USB.

Follow these instructions to create a ghost USB drive and install Windows.

Step 4: Extract the Hiren's BootCD File and Copy It to the USB Drive

Unzip "Hirens.BootCD.15.2.zip" > go to the unzipped folder > select "Hirens.BootCD.15.2.iso" , extract it, and copy all the files inside to the USB drive.

Step 5: Copy the Grldr and Menu.ist Files to the Newly Created Bootable USB Drive

Copy the two files "grldr" and "menu.lst" and paste them into the Hirenboot USB drive you just created. So where do you get these two files "grldr" and "menu.lst" from? You can get them from:

• The grub folder after extracting the grub4dos.zip file.
• Within the HBCD folder extracted from the Hiren Boot ISO file .

After creating the bootable USB drive, plug it into your computer, restart the computer, and enter the BIOS. The method for accessing the BIOS varies depending on the computer model and operating system, but it's usually done using keys like F12 or Delete. Once in the BIOS, select the boot option from the USB drive. From there, you can reinstall Windows and perform other tasks as needed.

Our boot screen will look like this:

Mini Windows XP on HirenBoot USB

Above is a very detailed guide on creating a bootable USB drive using Hiren's BootCD. With the bootable USB drive you just created, you can use it to ghost Windows, install Windows, restore a ghost image, or fix Windows errors when needed. This method will be especially useful when your computer encounters problems and you cannot restart it normally or you do not have a CD drive to install Windows from a disc.

If you find creating a bootable USB using Hiren's Boot CD too complicated, you can try Rufus, a very easy-to-use bootable USB creation tool. With just a few clicks, you'll have a bootable USB drive; the only difference is that with Rufus, you need the Windows ISO file.

Video Tutorial on Creating a Bootable USB Drive Using Hiren's BootCD

Good luck!